Portuguese Egg Tarts

Last Saturday, after my routine grocery shopping and breakfast, I decided to do some simple pastries. I just had the urge to do puff pastries. Even though I'm not very good at puff pastries, I enjoyed the tedious steps involved. And, I like puff pastries, even though I know how unhealthy it is!


So, for that morning, I decided to embark on Alex Goh's Portuguese Egg Tarts. Aloysius has been a great fan of egg tarts. Whenever my dad picks him up from school, he will buy a packet of five Crystal Jade egg tarts for Aloysius. Both of them like their HK egg tarts very much. Each egg tart cost about $1.30. But it's really nice. So to satisfied their palate, I decided to bake the Portuguese style, to make them stop eating from outside! *grin proudly*


The egg tarts really turned out very well! The egg custard was really soft, and not too sweet. Even though some of the tops were browned, it doesn't has the charred taste. The puff pastries crust was really crispy. This is definitely a keeper!

Recipe for Portuguese Egg Tarts, extracted from "Irresistible Pastry by Alex Goh".
Makes 24 regular egg tarts (regular muffin tray)

Puff Pastry


Ingredients:
(A)
400g Plain flour
50g Unsalted butter
1/8 tsp Fine salt
220g Water
(B)
300g Pastry margarine (I used only 250g)


Method:

1. Mix (A) to form a smooth dough. Let it rest for 15mins.
2. Roll out the dough into cross shape with the centre thicker and the four limbs thinner.
3. Place the pastry margarine onto the centre of the dough. Wrap it up.
4. Roll out the dough into a 10mm thickness and fold once. Let it rest for 15mins. (I skipped the resting part as I missed it when reading the instructions. It worked fine for me too.)
5. Turn the dough 90 degrees. Repeat step (4), four more times.
6. Roll out the dough into 3-mm thick. Cut the sheet into half.
7. For one of the half, roll it up like swiss roll. Chill till firm.
8. For the other half, fold them like an envelope and refrigerate for future use.

Egg Fillings

(Makes enough for half of the puff pastry above only.)

Ingredients:

100g Whipping cream

150g Whole milk

40g Fine sugar

1 Egg yolk

3 Whole eggs

1/4 Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Cook whipping cream and milk until 70C. (Feel it with your fingers. If it feels hot to the touch, it's probably about 70C. Do not boil.)
2. Stir in sugar and cook until the sugar dissolves.
3. Add it to into the beaten eggs and egg yolks.
4. Mix until well blended.
5. Lastly add in the vanilla extract. Set aside to cool completely.
6. Divide the puff pastry into 24 portions. Flatten the pastry and roll it into about 3-mm thick. Press onto the tart moulds.
7. Pour the fillings into the pastry tarts from step (5). (The fillings I made was barely enough to fill up 24 crusts, with only two tbsp per crusts, and not more! The eggs I used were small size.) 
8. Then bake at 200C for 20 mins on the centre rack. (You may place it at the lower rack. However, if there are no caramelised dots on the egg custard, move the baking tray upwards to let the tart surface take up more heat to create the caramelized dots. I baked mine on the top 2nd rack and it caramelised the whole custard!)